According to the ISSER government should apply means testing to target needy students to benefit from the free SHS policy or pay only tuition fees while parents of boarding students pay their boarding fees.

Another recommendation was for the policy to target Grade C and D schools while parents who can afford Grade A and B schools are made to pay. Those who qualify for Grade A and B schools but who cannot afford it should be given scholarships.

The recommendations were announced at a press briefing on ISSER’s post 2019 budget analysis in Accra on Monday. Presenting the results of the analysis on behalf of ISSER, Professor Peter Quartey, Head of the Economics Division at the ISSER, noted that the 2019 budget allocated GHC1.6 billion to the Free SHS while other critical flagship programmes like the Planting for Food and Jobs and the One District One Factory received GHC380 million and GHC95 million respectively.

While lauding the importance of the programme itself, he noted that, it was important for government to consider these options if it is to be able to address the issue of sustainability of funding arrangements for it.

  “…the existing funding mechanisms for the Free SHS is exerting excessive pressure on the budget and we propose that government considers means testing as a sure way of releasing funds to fund other equally important sectors,” he stated.

He said the means testing approach used in the LEAP programme could be scaled up and applied to the free SHS programme.

     “…if we want to create jobs, then we need to invest more in industry and other sector as well. It is good to educate the human capital but if you educate them and they cannot find jobs, it is equally dangerous.

Prof. Felix Ankomah Asante, Director of ISSER, suggested that the policy be separated from the boarding school system and applied only to tuition fees.“If I want my child to go to boarding school, I can go and negotiate for the boarding. For me, we should decouple boarding from the free SHS and that is where we can bring the private sector into it; the faith-based institutions and private sector can take over the boarding,” he stated.

He also raised questions with how the influx of students from the first batch free SHS into universities in 2020 will be handled, noting the challenge will be more human resource centered than infrastructure.

“How many lecturers do we have in this country? In 2020 they are all coming. University of Ghana admitted about 10,000 this year; how many have accommodation? About one-third but nobody is talking about it. There are students who come all the way from Kasoa to lectures every day; are we not concerned about them?” he questioned.

He urged the media to start the discussion on these issues and for government to come up with plans for this.ISSER stated that the 2019 budget had very ambitious programmes and targets aimed at transforming the economy and improving livelihoods but added that the outcomes would critically depend on how government is able to address domestic revenue mobilization challenges.